After the last five years of completely shitty WiFi and the stock Comcast/Xfinity modem-router, I decided to buy my own equipment when I moved. Well, last night was my first in the new place, so I did some research and set up an Orbi system by Netgear. This thing absolutely screams! Setup was super simple using their app and it’s a nice looking unit. Mine has a satellite that also includes three LAN ports, which is ideal for the new place. I picked up the Netgear CM600 modem with it. Solid setup all the way around. If you need a new home WiFi setup I suggest you check out Orbi.

It’s funny you mentioned that Chuck! When I ordered service to the new place I was crystal clear that I’d use my own modem. When the sales guy sent the confirmation email it showed $10 for modem rental. I caught it while still on the call and he acted as if it were a mistake and resent a corrected order.

Last night when I activated service, my modem would show a connection but I had no service. After about an hour on the phone with a tech support person she said my order hadn’t been confirmed via text message (it had been, which is what I did with the rep a week before) so she resent confirmation and it too showed a modem rental fee. Only after many attempts and me about losing my shit did she remove the charge. It’s all sorted now, but I watch that bill.

Comcast is a shitty company with shitty employees. This is why I’m going internet only and killed the very pricy TV package. While I can afford it, I don’t like giving the extra money to such a terrible company. I’m using Hulu Live TV.

I have my own modem as well. I didn't have the headache trying to tell them I didn't need to rent one. I too only have internet thru them as it's the only high speed option at my house right now. I have been waiting years for FIOS to come to the neighborhood.

I hate having to renegotiate every year for a new price though. I think I might have found a trick this past summer though. My one year contract was about to expire and the price was going to almost double. I called a rep on the weekend and received an offshore one I'm sure. He actually gave me a better price than I had previously. So I'm paying $39.99 for 75MB. I actually get around 85-90 speeds though.

I received an interesting email from them this past week. It said that Comcast was increasing speeds (for free???? please!!) and I needed a new modem as the one I currently own was incompatible.

So I opened a chat window with a rep. He eventually tells me to ignore the email.